Hello Dwellers and Welcome to the Basement... This site is update daily with either reviews of classic episode of Doctor Who, highlights from twitch streams, Anime reviews and other nonsense!
Updated Daily with New Content!
If you wish to support the Basement, drop a tip at: https://streamtip.com/t/fredcasden

LIVE ON TWITCH 7 NIGHTS A WEEK

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Dick Slater - Yay Or Nay For The Hall of Fame

Yeah I changed the title to something more catchy... still
the goal is the same, to go over the careers of various pro wrestling
superstars of the past to see if they should be inducted into the WWE Hall of
Fame at some point.

This week's case, 'The Rebel' Dick Slater

Many of you are going to ask... who?

Well the Rebel got his start in Florida thanks to the Graham
family, getting broken in with Championship Wrestling From Florida, winning
their version of the Tag Team Championships with Dusty Rhodes and other
partners as well as the TV title, worked out in California... but he really
made his mart in Georgia Championship Wrestling, spending most of the 70s and
early 80s there, winning the Georgia Heavyweight title four time, and two
versions of their tag titles with Cowboy Bob Orton, plus numerous other
regional titles and was reported to be considered to become the NWA World
Heavyweight Championship. So you see where his standing was during this period
of time.

Following the buy out of Georgia Championship Wrestling by
Jim Crockett, Slater bounced around from Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling to
Bill Watt's Mid-South Wrestling, winning the United States Title and numerous
other belts along the way, until finally hitting the WWE in 1986, where his
biggest highlight was beating Iron Mike Sharpe as 'The Big Event', but was used
primarily as enhancementtalented. After
leaving, he had a cup of coffee with the AWA then headed back to the
Mid-Atlantic where he would stay up through the mid 90s, being a staple of
World Championship Wrestling, winning the United
States and World Tag Team Titles before a
back injury forced his career to close.

The Case For Dick Slater: This is real simple, with the
exception of his time in the WWF and the stop in the AWA... Slater was a success
and a major star everywhere, winning 25 championships at least once. Considering
he was a corner stone of different major
territories (Flrodia, Georiga, Mid-Atlantic) and stayed relevant into the
mid-90s is a testament to him as performer. In fact the only blemish on his
career is his time with the WWF where signing every major star forced a lot of
guys into lower positions on the card.

The Case Against Dick Slater: It's minor, but, noticeable, the
fact that while he was consideredto be
the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and there was a lot of politics involved
with who became the standard bearer of the NWA, but he wasn't one to 'get along for the sake of
going along', it's hard to mark this as a case against him. Obviously the next
strike against him has to be that run in the WWF, Slater who did his best work
as a heel, was used as a babyface and as cannon fodder for the established
stars.

The Verdict: All things considered... I'd have to say a big
yes for Slater going into the WWE Hall of Fame, particularly under the
'regional' stars quota for the next time the WWE runs a WrestleMania in the
south... hell he could easily be considered for the class of 2017 since
WrestleMania is in Orlando, Florida, and it was Florida where he Slater's
career started.